Shadowchild: Part Five

I kept staring at the words I'd written out a second time in frustration. They spun through my mind over and over, but I still could barely comprehend them - there was so little information there that was clear to me. Why was this now my darkest hour? Whose love and hate had brought forth this new repugnance?

     Neither Aly nor Terzin could come to much of a conclusion, either. Frey's final words were nothing but an enigmatic verse beyond us, or at least in this point in time. The only thing we could agree on was that it was clearly about this Tyrin, my new enemy, and the product of Frey's dying vengeance.

     I looked up at my two friends tiredly. "I give up," I breathed raggedly. "I don't know what to do."

     Terzin shook his head silently and Aly looked down at the paper sadly. It was clear that they both felt useless, unable to aid me in finding the full identity of my current opposition.

     There was a sudden pounding on my door, yet again. I jumped at the sound of the aggressive knocking, thinking that it might be Dayne again, returned from her smoothie-sipping escapade. I reluctantly got up to answer it, slowed by disappointment.

      No sooner had I turned the knob then did Dayne charge through the door, almost knocking me over. As I caught a glimpse of her face, I noticed that she appeared to be both angry and somewhat upset. I was about to ask her what had happened, but I wasn't quick enough; she soon proceeded with her own outburst.

      "THAT SHADOW KID IS SUCH A LOSER!!! HE'S SO STUPID AND OBNOXIOUS AND HE'S LIKE OBSESSED WITH YOU FOR NO REASON!!! I CAN'T STAND HIM!!!"

      Dayne stood before us for a moment, shoulders heaving with each swift breath and eyes watering. "I talked to that Tyrin person - just now."

      Aly's indigo eyes widened considerably. "You talked to him? How did you manage that without being attacked?"

      "I dunno…" groaned the Island Zafara, in a tone that revealed that she hadn't been listening to Aly's questions to begin with. She sat down tiredly on my carpet, head hanging dejectedly. "I saw him in the woods under my balcony, so I thought I'd talk to him, and ask a few questions about who he was and why he was out to get you." She looked up, but her attention seemed to be focussed solely on me, as though Aly and Terzin weren't present. "He's so weird - he acts like, I dunno, a little kid. He doesn't know any basic stuff; just that he's gotta kill you. He wasn't trying to hide the fact that he was practically an assassin, and he didn't know what normal words meant!"

      I gazed at her evenly. "He didn't know what normal words meant?" I echoed.

      "No! It's like he was born yesterday! Oh, and he said he doesn't remember anything about himself before he got the sword."

      "That is weird," agreed Terzin. "Maybe he's been possessed, like you were, Dayne, only perhaps she's using Sirocco instead of the Firejewel."

      "I dunno," said the Island Zafara. "I remembered stuff before I was possessed, and she actually spoke through me." She shivered at the memory. "That was so freaky."

      "But Frey can't speak through him now," Aly pointed out, although this was a fact clear in all of our minds. "She's dead."

      "Yeah," I breathed, then stood up. "I think that the only way we're going to find anything out is if I meet him. I'm the one he's looking for, so maybe if he meets his purpose, he'll reveal more about himself."

      "But that's dangerous!" Dayne wailed.

      "Obviously!" The retort was snapped in response by Aly, who then brought her purple eyes to meet my blue ones. "It's a risk he's got to take, and it's not like we won't help him."

      "Jeez," mumbled Dayne, "First I think you like him and now you're kicking him out to fight a psycho."

      "Nobody asked you," Aly gritted from between teeth clenched in irritation.

      "It's okay, Dayne," I assured her. "Aly's right to agree with me - there's nothing else we can do." The last thing I wanted was for Dayne and Aly to get into a stupid little fight over nothing before we plunged headlong into the new peril that Tyrin presented me with.

      "We should head for the woods right now," Terzin urged. "Dayne just saw him there, so it would be best to see if he's still there. That way we don't have to go looking for him or wait for him to attack us."

      "Right," I breathed. "You go ahead and try to find him - I'm gonna get my sword."

      Terzin nodded briskly and he and Aly charged out the door, not wasting a second on the way to confront Tyrin. I realized that Dayne was at my heels as I raced into my room to fetch my weapon, the Windscythe. "You don't have to go back down there if you don't want to," I told her as my fingers closed over the scabbard. "Just don't cling on to me."

      "No - I need to tell you something that Tyrin said!"

      I turned to face her. "Can you tell me on the way there? I don't want to leave Terzin and Aly to deal with him on their own for too long."

      "No - but it'll be quick!"

      I sighed, hoping she was right. "Fine - what is it?"

      "There's one other thing he knows aside from the fact that he's got to kill you because of the Storm."

      "And that is…?"

      "He was born from the emotions of two mages, and one of them is you."

      I began to understand what this meant. "Frey's the other one. 'Born from the hate of one pair…' That's what the prophecy said."

      "No - it said 'Born from the love of one pair and the hate of another.' I think you're right about Frey and you being the hateful pair - I never thought about it before, but it makes sense now. But he doesn't know anything about Frey."

      "So she used emotions as a power source for Tyrin's creation," I murmured. "That explains why she was able to form the prophecy as she died - the only part of her own strength she used was her hate for me."

      "Yeah, that's great, but there's the other pair too - she used hate and love."

      I noticed that Dayne was looking uneasy, and subconsciously I realized that I was feeling the same way. "So what were you thinking about all this?"

      "Um…well…I figured that the only thing that made sense…for the 'love of one pair' bit, um, was…uh…you and Aly?"

      I felt a nervous rush of blood circulate my body as she spoke. I strove to dissuade Dayne against her conclusion. "What are you saying? Dayne, that doesn't make any sense."

      "Oh, come on!" she bawled, no longer cowed by her giddy thoughts. "It's so obvious - so obvious that Frey even knew to use it in a spell! You soooo like Aly! I'm a girl - I can tell!"

      "I do not!"

      "Suuure…"

      I rubbed my eyes in frustration. "Dayne, you always get messed with other people's business - what makes you think that there's anything remotely like that going on?"

      Surprisingly she had an answer ready. "She started crying when you almost died - hah! There's proof for ya! She like went after Frey and got all choked up!"

      I was stunned. I had almost died while fighting Frey for the last time - she had run me through and Aly had tried to vainly defend me, but in the end I had barely managed to evoke the Storm's power to turn time backwards and therefore save myself. Afterwards, Frey had been aware of what I'd done, even though it had been in a different time - one where I would have died by her blade. I then realized that Dayne and Aly had been witnesses to the shift in reality - did that mean that they both remembered what had happened?

      Apparently.

      "Maybe it was more of an act of love," I suggested, "As in friendship? Aly tried to protect me when I was dying, so Frey probably used the energy of that event somehow. Now let's go before Tyrin makes some kind of move!"

      "Pfft." This little sound effect caused the tuft of tan hair on Dayne's head to be blown back slightly. "Stop denying it and come clean. It's okay to have a little crush, Sissles!" She tweaked my cheek annoyingly. "Jeez, you're acting as though I said you were gonna settle down and start a life like pioneers or something. Don't get so touchy."

      I cocked an eyebrow. "Whatever. It's not like you never had your moments."

      "Huh?"

      "That Tuskaninny guy in grade four? You kept writing his name on your notebooks with hearts!"

      "I did not!"

      "And you stood up in class on Valentine's Day and told everyone you thought he was handsome!"

      "NO!"

      "Yeah - he was hiding from you all day and his friends almost threw you in a mud puddle, but I whipped my lunchbox at them!"

      "I don't remember that ever happening!"

      Yeah right, I thought, ingrate. I realized how much time we'd wasted talking about such a pointless topic. "Forget it then - let's go. Terzin and Aly are probably wondering where we are. You can bug me about my fake infatuations later."

      "Fine," sighed Dayne, somewhat grudgingly. She then sped after me as we headed down to the forest.

     *

      Terzin snarled, baring his teeth threateningly as he observed the dark youth before him. They had been able to find Tyrin fairly quickly; he'd been seemingly wandering aimlessly through the trees, and oddly enough, he had made no move to escape through the WindRoads.

      Upon being confronted by the two mages, he had taken up a defensive stance, clearly ready to use Sirocco if need be, his eyes glittering with hated familiarity towards Aly. Curiously, his free hand clutched several daisies, which he seemed to almost be protecting.

      The Lupe didn't fear the young Shadow Zafara as much as he feared Frey's capability to create him. Their old enemy had been more formidable than he had ever thought in the past, to be capable of constructing life even as she was pulled into death's embrace.

      "Mages?" spat Tyrin, more to himself than to outwardly express his disgust. "Pity you didn't bleed to death," he murmured in Aly's direction.

      Aly didn't respond. She wasn't about to aggravate him while Sisslio had yet to arrive. If Tyrin decided to lash out at his enemy from the previous day, she wasn't sure that she and Terzin would be able to hold him off for long before either party had to inflict serious harm on the other.

      "Where is the Windstorm?" inquired their foe when he received no reaction towards his previous comments.

      "You'll meet him soon enough," Terzin informed him, and maybe Aly imagined it, but she thought she noticed Tyrin's fur bristling slightly with almost jovial anticipation. Aly shivered slightly as she recognized it as anticipation to kill.

     *

      Dayne and I broke through the trees a moment later, the Windscythe drawn from its scabbard and clenched in my hands, at the ready. The Lupe and both Zafaras whirled around at our arrival, Tyrin's face twisting into a sinister smile at the sight of me.

      "I'm the one you're looking for," I called across the small distance between us. "Sisslio the Windstorm, the wielder of the Storm."

      He took a step forward eagerly, Sirocco gleaming in his grasp. "Yes. I've awaited this encounter with impatience. Now meet my blade, father!"

To be continued...